A model holds a Samsung Electronics' new tablet 'Galaxy Tab 10.1' as she poses for photographs during its launch ceremony at the company's headquarters in Seoul July 20, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co has stopped promoting its new tablet computer at Europe's biggest consumer electronics fair after a court-ordered sales injunction in Germany, the latest setback in its global patent battle with Apple Inc.

A Dusseldorf court ordered the South Korean company to stop selling Galaxy Tab 7.7 on Friday when the annual IFA electronics show started in Berlin. The move follows an earlier ban on German sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 by the court in late August until its final ruling on September 9.

The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the latest addition to Samsung's range of Galaxy products. It was first unveiled at the show along with 5.3-inch Galaxy Note, which Samsung hopes to create a new product category with and fill the gap between smartphones and tablets.

"The product is not on sale yet but we've decided to respect the court order," Samsung spokesman James Chung said.

Samsung and Apple have been locked in acrimonious battle over smartphones and tablets patents since April as Apple seeks to rein in the growth of Google's Android phones by taking directly aim at the biggest Android vendor, Samsung.

Apple has argued that Samsung had infringed on its patents and the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copied its design, look and feel. It is fighting legal battles in the United States as well as Europe, South Korea and Australia.

The battle forced Samsung to delay its tablet sales in Australia twice.

Samsung has counter-sued, arguing Apple infringed its wireless patents.

The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is powered by a dual 1.2 GHz processor and uses a 7.7-inch super-bright active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) screen.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

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A screen grab shows the access to Netflix online, as displayed on a television screen, in Encinitas, California July 25, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starz Entertainment will pull all of its movies and television shows from Netflix Inc's streaming service early next year, depriving Netflix customers from online viewing of new releases out of two major Hollywood studios.

Pay-TV operator Starz, controlled by John Malone's Liberty Media, said on Thursday it had ended talks to renew a deal that expires February 28. After that date, Starz will stop providing its content, which includes exclusive rights to first-run Sony Corp and Walt Disney Co movies, for streaming on Netflix.

Shares of Netflix were down 8.7 percent at $213 in after-hours trade, from a close on the Nasdaq of $233.27.

Netflix was offering to pay somewhere in the $200 million to $300 million range annually for rights to stream Starz content, a source familiar with the negotiations said. Starz balked at that offer, the source said.

Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings said in June it "wouldn't be shocking" to pay up to $200 million, a figure some analysts had predicted.

The original online streaming rights are believed to have been agreed for around $30 million a year four years ago, people familiar with the deal have said.

Starz, in a statement, called its decision to end talks with Netflix "a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging" of its content.

The news came the same day that an unpopular Netflix price hike of as much as $6 per month took effect. The breakdown with Starz was a surprise because investors had expected the parties to reach a deal, said Brett Harriss, an analyst with Gabelli & Co.

"Netflix just effectively raised prices by 60 percent, and a big chunk of their content walked away," Harriss said.

Thursday's announcement could open up the possibility that Starz might now court another online streaming provider, such as Amazon.com Inc or Google Inc's Youtube.

Starz was not immediately available for further comment.

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company was "confident we can take the money we had earmarked for Starz renewal next year and spend it with other content providers to maintain or even improve the Netflix experience."

Netflix said Starz movies and shows account for just 8 percent of U.S. subscribers' viewing, and the company had projected that to fall to 5-6 percent by the first quarter of 2012, right when the deal dies.

Starz is the exclusive distributor of first-run Sony and Disney movies on pay-TV in the United States under an agreement that allows it to distribute the programing wholesale on multiple platforms, including online streaming.

But Netflix -- which has grown faster than partners expected -- triggered a deal clause in the first quarter when it announced it now has more than 22.8 million subscribers in the United States, of which nearly two-thirds were streaming videos, sources told Reuters in June.

Under terms of the original contract, the trigger allowed Sony to ask Starz for better financial terms, the sources had said.

Sony's content already was removed from the Netflix streaming service while negotiations were underway. Disney movies were accessible.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine, editing by Robert MacMillan, Matthew Lewis and Carol Bishopric)

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Google Chairman Eric Schmidt smiles during a rehearsal of his MacTaggart lecture speech for the Edinburgh International Television Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland August 26, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/David Moir

EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) - Google is "absolutely committed" to its fledgling television business and expects many more partners to join it soon, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Saturday.

Google TV, which allows viewers to mix Web and television content on TV screens via a browser, has received lukewarm reviews and been blocked by the major U.S. networks since its launch in the United States in October.

Schmidt told the Edinburgh television festival its lack of success so far was partly because it was a feature designed into televisions, devices which consumers tend to replace only about once every five years.

"We're absolutely committed to staying, to improving Google TV," he said, adding that new companies would be joining existing partners Sony and Logitech for the next version. Logitech makes computer mice, speakers, webcams and keyboards.

"I believe that they're both going to be on board and I believe there are many more coming. Wait shortly for an announcement," he said.

Google has long harbored ambitions to extend its $28 billion online advertising business to the television arena, where the lion's share of global ad budgets is spent.

It owns YouTube, the world's most popular online video site, but has not announced any profits from that business since buying it in 2006.

Schmidt said in a keynote speech on Friday that he expected Google TV to launch in Europe early next year.

On Saturday, he said Google had not yet resolved its differences with U.S. networks ABC, NBC and CBS, and hoped the company would not encounter similar problems for its British launch.

"We certainly have talked to them about reversing their position and we certainly hope that won't happen here," he said, adding that Google was in talks with UK broadcasters.

Like other industries disrupted by the Internet, the television industry is broadly suspicious of Google, fearing the company will steal its advertising revenues without contributing toward the high costs of programing.

Google argues that the Internet can expand the total advertising market by providing better-targeted and more effective ads that will encourage companies to spend more.

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Google could glean valuable insights into U.S. viewing habits from the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which it announced last week.

Motorola owns the world's largest set top box business and has close relationships with U.S. cable companies -- who have expressed concern about the acquisition.

Schmidt said he could not talk in detail about Google's plans for that business until the merger was completed, but said there were "interesting ideas" about how it could help Google's existing television business.

"We're intending to run Motorola, which would include the set top box business, as a completely separate business. That does not mean that there won't be communication between the two, and obviously sharing and knowledge sharing," he said.

Schmidt also said British Prime Minister David Cameron would be making a mistake if he tried to shut down online communications during periods of social unrest.

Cameron had asked authorities to look at the possibility of such measures in the wake of riots that tore through England earlier this month and were partly organized on Research in Motion's BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook.

Such moves have been widely condemned as repressive when used by other countries, especially during the Arab Spring uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East.

"I think it's a mistake. I hope that's a clear answer," Schmidt said. "Whatever the problem was, which I don't really understand... the Internet was a reflection of that problem but turning the Internet on and off is not going to fix it."

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Keiron Henderson)

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Google's Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt poses during an interview with Reuters at Google's headquarters in Buenos Aires March 4, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Enrique Marcarian

EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) - Google Inc will launch its TV service in Europe early next year, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Friday, despite teething problems that had led some observers to question how committed the company would remain to the project.

Google TV, which allows viewers to mix Web and television content on a TV screen via a browser, was launched in the United States in October but received mixed reviews and was swiftly blocked by three of the top U.S. broadcast networks.

Large parts of the television industry, like the news and telecoms industries, view Google with suspicion and accuse it of stealing their advertising revenues without contributing to the costs of making programs.

Schmidt sought to allay the fears of Britain's broadcasting elite in a speech to the Edinburgh television festival, the first time a non-TV executive had been invited to give the keynote MacTaggart lecture at Britain's premier industry event.

"Some in the US feared we aimed to compete with broadcasters or content creators. Actually our intent is the opposite," he told an audience who quickly warmed to his friendly style and liberal compliments to the quality of British television.

"We seek to support the content industry by providing an open platform for the next generation of TV to evolve, the same way Android is an open platform for the next generation of mobile," he said.

"We expect Google TV to launch in Europe early next year, and of course the UK will be among the top priorities."

Google TV has gained little traction so far in the United States, and its set top box provider Logitech International SA slashed prices to $99 in July from an initial price of $299.

Schmidt also included a warning to British television regulators, who he said were far more stringent than their U.S. counterparts and threatened to throttle the development of British television companies in an increasingly global market.

"Stifling the Internet -- whether by filtering or blocking or just plain turning the 'off' switch -- appeals to policy makers the world over," he said. "Instead, policy makers should work with the grain of the Internet rather than against it."

OPPORTUNISTIC

Google has long held ambitions in the television arena, hoping to extend its online advertising business, which made $28 billion for the company last year, to the big screens that still command the lion's share of global advertising budgets.

"If his ambition was to go there and convince the TV people he wasn't a big threat, I don't think he achieved it," said Keith McMahon, an analyst at research firm Telco 2.0/STL Partners.

"The message I got was that TV is such a big market that Google can't ignore it. They're never going to give it up."

So far, Google has had little success breaking into the TV market, despite its ownership of the world's most popular online video site, YouTube.

Last week, however, Google agreed a deal to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc for $12.5 billion, handing it the world's leading set top box business which delivers content for many of the top cable TV companies in the United States.

The headline attraction of the deal was Motorola's huge portfolio of wireless patents but the set top box business could help Google transform its TV project by giving it insights into pay-TV.

Google has not spelled out its plans for the set top box business, and many analysts expect it to divest the unit at the first opportunity, having no experience or previous interest in running a hardware business.

Others believe Google could change tack under CEO Larry Page, Google's co-founder who took back the reins from Schmidt in April and has already started a social network to compete with Facebook while ditching other projects.

"Google describes itself as an opportunistic company. So while it may not have wanted to buy Motorola's operations, it may now assess whether retaining these assets can compensate for the risk of owning them," New York-based Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey wrote in a note this week.

Schmidt made no mention of the Motorola acquisition or its implications on Friday, but will hold a question and answer session in Edinburgh on Saturday.

(Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; editing by David Cowell, Tim Dobbyn and Andre Grenon)

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A posed picture shows a Motorola Droid phone displaying the Google search page in New York August 15, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Recommendations to unload Google Inc stock are extremely rare on Wall Street. But the latest "sell" rating for the Internet company was so fleeting it existed for just three trading days.

Standard & Poor's upgraded Google's stock on Monday, giving it a "hold" rating, reversing its much-debated downgrade the prior week.

S&P had slapped Google with a Sell rating -- the only such bearish call on the Internet giant's stock among almost 40 analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S -- after a surprise August 15 announcement that it will buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc for $12.5 billion.

As with other investors and industry commentators, S&P voiced concern about Google's plans to enter the smartphone manufacturing business, which could weigh on its financials and create conflicts with the other handset vendors who also license Google's Android software.

Shares of Google have fallen more than 10 percent from their closing price before the deal was announced, trading just a whisker below $500 in the afternoon, compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average's roughly 3 percent drop during the period.

But while several analysts adjusted targets on Google's stock price following news of the deal, no other firm appears to have downgraded Google's stock, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Scott Kessler, the head of technology sector equity research at S&P, said the sell-off in Google's stock following the Motorola news had brought its share price down to the $500 target that he set for Google when he downgraded the stock.

"It's very hard for us to say sell this stock when it's trading below its target price," Kessler told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The fact that the back-to-back Google downgrade and upgrade came from S&P Equity, whose parent's unprecedented downgrade of United States sovereign debt this month roiled global markets and prompted discussion, made the move all the more striking.

Kessler acknowledged it was unusual to see a stock's recommendation change so quickly. But he said the move was consistent with S&P's approach to equity research.

"If we made a change to our fundamental commentary or the target price, that would understandably be a little curious," he said.

Google, the world's No.1 Web search engine, has 14 "strong buy" ratings, 20 "buy" ratings and 5 "hold" ratings, according to Thomson Reuters data. Google has no other "underperform" or "sell" ratings according to Thomson One (S&P's research is not included in Thomson One).

Although S&P raised its recommendation on Google's stock a notch, Kessler said the firm's views of Google have not changed much.

"We still have a lot of questions and concerns about this proposed acquisition and the impact it's going to have," he said.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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